Biography
Lord Hamilton of Epsom has engaged substantially on end-of-life and assisted dying issues through eight debate speeches, predominantly focused on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill across multiple parliamentary sessions. His contributions have centred on concerns about medical misdiagnosis of terminal prognosis, the risk of "mission creep" in legislation, and potential financial incentives within the NHS to pursue assisted dying. He also raised collateral health impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically regarding delayed treatment for cancer, strokes, and heart attacks.
Generated from their own Hansard record, below
“…We are saying that, if people have got only six months to live, they should apply for assisted dying, but it may be that they live for years afterwards.…”
Record by topic
- Assisted dying62nd of 37112.0
- Palliative & end of life care294th of 5684.0
- Cancer503rd of 6222.0
- Heart disease & stroke324th of 3982.0
- Elderly care & frailty166th of 2362.0
- Hospital discharge / bed-blocking114th of 1392.0
What they’ve said
“…that some of these diagnoses will be completely wrong and, as a result, there will be people who will apply for assisted dying who might have lived for years. This strikes me as being a disturbing element of the whole Bill. We should be seriously considering whether something should be done to address this problem.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-03-20 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…If it can save money by making sure that people go for assisted dying, I am sure it will do that, on the basis that then it could keep other people alive. Those are the invidious choices that the National Health Service has to make.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-02-27 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I am very concerned that, if it morphed into a euthanasia Bill, we would have a consultant in geriatrics walking through a ward saying, “I want to see those three people in those beds dead by the morning because there’s a bed-blocking issue”, and so forth.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-02-27 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…NHS at the moment and, if it can ensure that people who are blocking beds vote for assisted dying, that will save the hospital money. That is just a fact of life.…”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-02-27 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…That was a very serious lever used to get rid of capital punishment. What percentage of misdiagnosis of terminal illness would the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, think would be right before he thought about whether the whole basis of this Bill was to be questioned? I do not think we have any statistics on misdi…”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-23 · Read on Hansard ↗
Contributions reproduced under the Open Parliament Licence.